Unique-subgroup criterion for a finite abelian group to be cyclic ($\#\{H\le A:|H|=d\}\le 1\text{ for every }d\mid |A|$)

A finite abelian group is a cyclic group if and only if it has at most one subgroup of each order dividing its order. A cyclic group $C_n$ has exactly one subgroup of order $d$ for each $d\mid n$, generated by the $n/d$th power of a generator.

Conversely, the structure theorem for finitely generated modules over a principal ideal domain expresses $A$ as $C_{d_1}\oplus \cdots \oplus C_{d_s}$ with $2\le d_1\mid \cdots \mid d_s$. If $s\ge 2$, choose a prime number $p\mid d_1$. The first and second summands then provide distinct subgroups of order $p$, contradicting the hypothesis. Hence $s\le 1$, so $A$ is cyclic, including the trivial group when $s=0$. This criterion combines with the root bound for a polynomial to prove that a finite subgroup of a field multiplicative group is cyclic.